An Airy, Vintage Wedding at the Lodge at Mountain Springs Lake in the Poconos, Pennsylvania

Laura Pesce (27 and a teacher) and Andy Gioia (30 and a brewer) began their relationship with a wedding. They met while working for the same catering company at a wedding. Laura was working as a waitress and Andy was a line cook who served under Laura’s brother, the caterer’s sous chef. Laura and Andy were friendly acquaintances for a while, until they met again at a party and struck up an easygoing conversation. A month later, when Andy needed a date for a friend’s wedding, he invited Laura. They went on their first official date at Seaside Heights in New Jersey, a perfect night that ended with a kiss under the boardwalk. On Laura’s 25th birthday, Andy and Laura’s closest friends and families went on a trip to Vermont. While snowboarding on the slopes, Andy proposed to Laura with a beer specially brewed for her with a label describing the “ingredients” for a loving relationship. The couple were married at an outdoor unity ceremony at the Lodge at Mountain Springs Lake in the Poconos, with Andy’s father ordaining. The reception was held indoor at the lodge. “The theme was rustic and vintage with a mint and nude color palette,” says Laura. “We are both so handy so we knew we could make our own decor. We wanted to recycle and borrow pieces as much as we could.” Included among those borrowed and recycled pieces was the typewriter upon which guests could write cards for the newlyweds and place them in the vintage suitcase that Laura’s mother used on her own honeymoon. All of the signs at the wedding were DIY, either handwritten, stenciled or burned into the wood. The table assignments were written on a window pane that Laura found at a yard sale. Andy made the bases for the centerpieces out of wood from a tree that was felled by Hurricane Sandy. The cake topper was made from beer corks and hardware, and the ivory cake was decorated with succulents. Floral arrangements by Kempton Floral Design included pink and peach garden roses, yellow craspedia, rosemary, eucalyptus and succulents. Andy and Laura’s resourcefulness paid off as they crafted a charmingly bucolic lakeside wedding.